IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS - DataSpace - Princeton ...

among Jews, the Makhzan, and foreign officials. My approach replaces a linear model of
foreigners inserting themselves in between the Makhzan and Jews with a fluid model in which
the relationships among Jews, the Makhzan, and foreigners shifted depending on the
circumstances of the case at hand. 8 I also focus on recovering the strategies of Jews at the local
level and contextualizing them within the broader framework of Moroccan legal history.
In the model I propose, Jews neither passively fell victim to the Makhzan nor were
unwittingly duped by the divide-and-rule tactics of Europeans. On the one hand, as we saw in
Part Two, Jews were able to petition the Makhzan for redress when they felt their rights had been
violated; it was in the context of broader strategies which also included appeals to the Makhzan
that Jews asked foreigners to intervene in their legal affairs. On the other hand, when Jews’
grievances concerned foreign subjects or protégés, they tended to appeal to the Makhzan rather
than foreigners. Jews’ appeals were not aimed exclusively at foreign diplomats and Jewish
organizations; as with their choices of legal venues, Jews shopped among the various options to
maximize the chances that their legal disputes would be addressed. At times, groups of Jews
adopted different solutions for how to address their grievances, which could lead to
disagreements among Jewish communities about which path of appeal to take.
Another corrective to the neo-lachrymose narrative is the fact that foreigners’ perception
of the Makhzan as arbitrary oppressor was not always accurate. On the contrary, what foreigners
perceived as persecution was often merely the normal functioning of Islamic law and/or the state.
Through a close examination of two “celebrity” cases which captured the interest of Jewish and
8
In so doing, I build on the work of Mohammed Kenbib, who argues that Europeans intervened on behalf of Jews as
a way to interfere in Morocco’s internal affairs and thus extend their influence in the region; see especially Juifs et
musulmans and Les protégés.
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